


Episode 21: Baba Knows Best

by PitoyaPTx



Series: Clan Meso'a [21]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Grandparents, Interspecies Relationship(s), Mandalorian, Mandalorian Culture, Old Couples, Storytelling, learning from your elders, old warriors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-13
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2020-03-02 18:39:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18816730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PitoyaPTx/pseuds/PitoyaPTx
Summary: "Let the mountain speak when she wishes." ~Baba TamCara spends the afternoon with three raiders old enough to remember the mountain's voice.





	Episode 21: Baba Knows Best

**Author's Note:**

> There will be a LOT of both Soah-ra and Mando'a in the next few episodes, so I'll be putting their translations here at the beginning of the episode. ~PTX
> 
> Kex'ika -little warrior

“In the East, do they celebrate the Ka’kex?”   
Jecho glanced up from the beaded cords of leather she was braiding together. It had been two weeks since she’d started tutoring Cara. Now able to recite the Resol’nare from memory and able to ask for basic directions and items in their native tongue, Jecho turned their lessons to the deep history of Cara’s home tribe, the Brood of Tusks. Tomorrow began the Warriors’ Festivals or Ka’kex, a combination of the Soah-ra words for fire (ka) and warrior (kukex) literally translating to “warrior fire”. As the literal translation suggests the Ka’kex involves lots of bonfires, torches, and Ka’hast by the barrel full. Beginning at sundown and ending in two days at sunrise, the Ka’kex took weeks-sometimes-months to prepare for depending on how many warriors were participating in the trials. To make sure the Clan alor can attend the festivities, each tribe’s Ka’kex begins two days after the first tribe’s begins. This way, there is time to travel from region to region.   
“He takes a small shuttle,” said Jecho, “Most of us travel by speeder or mount because ships, even small ones, still startle the young Jiiya.”   
The Ka’kex began with the first trial, the Kexultz: a coming of age ceremony for children fourteen or older during which they would complete an obstacle course in each tribal land to retrieve elements of their armor (ear spools from the ocean, clawed shoes from the mountains, shredded plume from the jungle, and pectoral from the plains). Once they’ve found each item, they enter an arena with a juvenile Jiiya wearing their helmet on a rope around its neck. If the initiate succeeds in retrieving the helmet, they are declared Kukex, a warrior, and given the title Haria’n (lit. ruiner). Should they fail, either by death or by intervention, it is up to the Choxultz’alor to decide the outcome of the trial. Intervention only happens when an initiate is either too injured to continue or they chose not to. Forfeiting is considered weakness and can lead to an initiate being barred from subsequent Kexultz and an automatic ban from ever participating in the advanced trial, Choxultz. If an initiate is too injured to continue, the Choxultz’alor may intervene and prevent any further damage. Should this occurs, the initiate is still able to retake the trials so long as they show determination to do so once their injuries heal. A test of strength and how well they retained their training, the Kexultz is designed to pass as many warriors as are willing to ascend into adulthood.   
Following the Kexultz is the Festival of the Sky, or the Vin’ka (literally “sky fire”, the general Soah-ra term for the sky, stars, or the heavens). Ka’hast is still consumed and the bonfires are maintained, but the Vin’ka involves a host of musical performances put on by the Chibala and warriors from each tribe who volunteer to either play instruments or perform native dances.   
“I play a small stretched-skin drum,” said Jecho, “and this year your alor’s daughter will be performing the Vin’til’tzoc, or skyquake, dance.”   
Jecho explained that the Vin’ka marks the beginning of the final set of trials: the Choxultz. A test of both physical and spiritual strength, the Choxultz pits initiates against the most dangerous elements of Meso’kaan: floods, adult Jiiya, and other warriors.   
“It follows the plight of the first Crusaders to make contact,” Jecho said as she finished her fifth set of cords.   
In the morning sunlight, Greta’s smile seemed brighter now that there were rings of paper flowers around her neck. Cara couldn’t help but smile back. Several elders, some Cara remembered from her first meal at the cantina, were already seated around the fountain with tubs of beads and cords.   
“What happened to them?” Cara asked.   
“Oh my what didn’t?” said an aging Mirialan, “They were stabbed, chased into a ravine, trampled-”  
“Drowned,” added a Togruta with a missing eye.   
“Drowned, yes,” nodded the Mirialan.   
“Goodness!” Cara exclaimed, “what did they do to deserve that?”  
The Mirialan shrugged, “They just..existed. Our ancestors had never seen outsiders before.”   
“Not that our relationship with them has improved now that we have!” chuckled the Togruta.   
“Now now,” said a human male seated on Cara’s right with the bushiest eyebrows she’d ever seen, “We were doing alright for a while there.”  
The Togruta rolled her eyes, “Maybe, but after the war we were right to lock them out again!”  
“The Crusaders?” asked Cara, looking from one to the other.   
“No!” the Togruta set down her weaving in a huff, “Chibala,” she peered around the Mirialan at Jecho seated on the ground, “You haven’t told her the story of Fiyn? Lady Fiyn?”  
Jecho flushed, but appeared rather amused, “I’d hoped to tell her our history in order.”  
The Togruta shook her head, “No no no, the Crusaders can wait! Fiyn is far more important.”  
“You mean more tragic?” said the Mirialan.  
“More interesting is more like it,” the human muttered, giving Cara a wink, “Baba Weiyn needs excitement to stay awake.”  
“I heard that, cyare!” the Togruta threw a piece of cloth his way. It didn’t make it to him, instead floating down towards the gurgling water of the fountain. Cara watched the bit of white fabric catch the ripples and bob about before being swept away in the miniature current.   
Weiyn sighed, a light slight smile painting her lips, and looked back across the fountain at Greta. “No one could ever forget you,” she said softly.  
The Mirialan scooted closer to Cara and patted the stone where she’d been sitting, “My ears are bad, dear, come sit between us.”   
Jecho set down her cords, got up, and settled down between the older women, “Ra’baal’ta, Baba Cho? Can you hear me?”  
Cho nodded, “I’m not as-”  
“Oh don’t go getting yourself into more trouble!” his wife chided, this time swiping playfully at his long, greying braid.   
He cackled a warm, denchured laugh and settled into cutting the wide strips of leather for the cords.  
“You can call me Baba Tam,” the Mirialan whispered to Cara before Jecho began reciting Fiyn’s story.   
Cara grinned back, remembering Tam fondly from her first lunch on Meso’kaan.   
“Now,” Weiyn cut across Jecho who’d just opened her mouth, “This was before raiders like Cho, Tam, and I existed, so our ancestors relied on people like Fiyn and the Rachi to translate for the Clan.”  
Rachi, Cara remembered, were the emissaries of the clan. Each tribe had four that all lived with and served directly under the Clan Alor. The current Alor, the ninth Yaun, had enlisted the help of any available Meso’a willing to learn Basic now that war gripped the galaxy once again. Aviila was one such warrior, she’d learned. Aviila was a raider with a compassionate disposition, leading her to be called upon for diplomatic ventures. If she were a Rachi, she’d have a gold medallion on her pectoral. As a Rader, she sported the three Jiiya teeth in the place the medallion would have been. Just like the one Beon and Fent found on Leata, she thought.   
“Ta’ra, Baba?” Jecho asked, placing a gentle hand on her knee, “May I speak?”   
Weiyn grumbled something under her breath and waved dismissively, turning back to her loom. Cho chuckled; Tam shook her head.   
Jecho took a deep breath, sat up straight, and clasped her hands in her lap. “Tome Twenty-two: Fiyn, Vin’alor be aliit Xalaraac. In-”  
“No no no,” Weiyn cut the air with her arms, “You can’t just recite it like that!”  
Jecho maintained her polite smile, “And how should I tell it, Baba?”  
“I could tell it,” said Tam, setting down her finished cords and nudging the box away so she could cross her ankles, “I tell it to all my ade.”   
Weiyn nodded, arms crossed contently, “You have to tell it right or else our kex’ika might not fully understand how important she is.”   
Cara sat back so Baba Tam blocked her flushed face and awkward giggle from the others, but Cho noticed and gave her arm an affectionate elbow.   
Tam shut her eyes for a moment, her breathing growing steady and slow. Cara watched her out of the corner of her eye. Her shoulders prickled as she realized that Tam’s features were becoming heavy with...melancholy. She paused and turned to face her; Tam opened her eyes, met Cara’s concerned gaze, and gave her a weak smile.   
“Lady Fiyn,” she began, her voice low and somber, “Vin’alor be aliit Xalaraac….”


End file.
